It was in early July five years ago that I encountered this strange event.

"Tendai Shomyo."In an interview withOharaWe had been visiting the temple in the rain and walked up the path along the Lu River, past the souvenir stores.

Approach to Sanzenin Temple and Raigo-in Temple, Rokawa

I had the opportunity to listen to a statement from the temple's abbot, and when I entered the main hall, the candelabra was dimly lit and the three main deities stood out in a hazy golden glow.

Shomyo is a form of chanting sutras with verses. It is said that the practice is strongly musical in nature and is transmitted orally.
In the early Heian period, Ohara was founded by Jikaku Daishi Ennin, a direct disciple of Saicho, as a training center for the Buddhist chanting he had learned from Tang China. At the time of its prosperity, there were 49 monasteries,A village where monks and aristocrats gather to practice shōmyō (Buddhist chanting) and where the strange sounds reverberate through the air.It was known as the

home of Ohara (village)

In the hall, where the sound of rain was quietly echoing, the priest recited the sutra "Soreigarbha Gatha" in shomyo (Buddhist chanting). Although each verse of the statement was difficult to understand, it was deeply moving, and I gradually felt myself becoming more relaxed, and I naturally bowed my head in reverence to the three deities, clasping my hands in prayer.

Having soaked the statement into our bodies, we left the temple,Visit to the mausoleum of Shonin Ryonin, the founder of Tendai Shomyowith one's feetVisit Otonashi Falls, a waterfall associated with a Buddhist priest.He headed for the

Otonashi Waterfall
(This is one of several photos actually taken without the mysterious object in the picture.)

This famous waterfall is mentioned in the Edo period geographical magazine "Miyako Meisho Zue (Illustrations of Famous Places in the Capital)," where the priest Yoshinobu Shonin is said to be practicing a statement facing the stream of the waterfall,The sound of the waterfall and the voice of the statement harmonized, and finally the sound of the waterfall was no longer heard.It is said that the waterfall got its name from this fact. Since then, many monks have devoted themselves to the daily practice of chanting in front of this waterfall basin. And then, the waterfall was named after the waterfall,There is a world that only those who have reached a certain level can see.The waterfall is said to have been a place of great spiritual growth for many of the ascetics. However, it is said that there were many practitioners who fell in the middle of their ascetic practices and threw themselves into the waterfall basin.

We stood in front of the Otonashi Falls under the humid rainy season sky, the water volume increasing, and took pictures of the falls, replaying in our minds the statement we had just heard.

At the time, I didn't see any change, but when I returned to my office after the interview and checked the images from my digital camera on my computer, I exclaimed, "Oh, my God!

When I zoomed in on a section of the waterfall, I could clearly see a human face about two-thirds of the way up, on the left side of the waterfall! Moreover, it is a man with a white face and a neat expression with a rounded head. No, not only that. Here and there, there are objects that look like human faces floating in the spray, as if they are shouting or chanting something with their big mouths open. I checked other images, but this was the only one I could find.

I suddenly remembered a warning I had heard from a photographer.

When photographing Otonashi Falls in the morning on a rainy day, you may notice strange objects in the picture. This is one of them,The moment when the door between this world and the astral world opens.Was it?

Five years later, I printed out the mysterious photo, put it on the altar in my office, offered water and salt, and worshiped it as the guardian deity of our office.